The Bank of England’s Recent Retreat On Rate Hikes (A Blueprint for the Fed?)

What a difference 19 months make. It was June, 2014 when Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney confidently warned financial markets that rate hikes could come earlier than implied at that time by the market. Less than a month later, the British pound (FXB) (or sterling) peaked against the U.S. dollar (DXY0). Peaks against … Read more

The Japanese Yen Vies For Center Stage

To start the new year, I wrote a piece titled “The Japanese Yen Flashes Red for 2016.” At the time, I used charts of the Japanese yen (FXY) trading against various currencies to demonstrate how the yen was asserting itself in currency markets. Two weeks later, speculators have provided confirmation of the increasing interest in … Read more

The Japanese Yen Flashes Red for 2016

Trading is off to a rough start in the new year. China kicked off the fireworks for 2016 with a trading halt. From Bloomberg: “The worst-ever start to a year for Chinese shares triggered a trading halt in more than $7 trillion of equities, futures and options, putting the nation’s new market circuit breakers to … Read more

The U.S. Dollar Should Remain On Center Stage Despite Market Tentativeness

The U.S. dollar index ended 2015 on a strong note, but it has yet to develop any post-Fed momentum. Of the ten trading days following the rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the index has closed below that day’s intraday high five days. Notably, the intraday LOW of that day is still holding strong … Read more

A Policy Island for the Fed: The Bank of England and U.S. Economic Data Isolate the Fed

This past week was an important one for monetary policy. The Bank of England (BoE) made clear it is willing to put off rate hikes as long as necessary. Despite its words that suggest otherwise, the Bank is NOT biased for action. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made it clear that, all else being … Read more